Columbia 2
I want to mention that all of the photos in this series (and, indeed, most of the photos on this site) were shot with what Mike Johnston calls the hair shirt of lens lengths, a 50mm "prime".
I do actually own a zoom lens, and shoot a lot with it, but I tend to treat it as a 24mm and a 70mm lens, not so much as a 24-70 zoom. That is, I'll set it to one end, and shoot with that for a while, and then if I need a wider or longer lens I'll switch it to the other end and shoot with that. Very little fiddling around at intermediate zoom lengths. If I want to get closer, I'll walk closer, damnit.
There's a much longer, ranty, curmudgeonly post about why people who want to learn photography should get a single prime lens in any length from 24 to 100 and just shoot with that for a year, but I'm not feeling properly crotchety to write it now, so you'll have to wait. I know you're sorry about that.
Savannah, on Monday, February 13, 2006 at 6:49 AM:
Actually, I would like to hear (read) it. Clearly you must feel that not using a zoom teaches a beginning photographer good habits--but how come? What do they specifically learn using a not-zoom (or whatever) that they'd miss using a zoom lens?
David Adam Edelstein, on Monday, February 13, 2006 at 6:57 AM:
Mike Johnston covers most of the ground I would cover here: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-03-07-13.shtml
Savannah, on Monday, February 13, 2006 at 9:39 AM:
Thank you. Very enlightening.